Skull's Guardians
by CloudySky01
Summary: 5 times someone heard Skull mention his Guardians, and the 1 time someone realised who they were to Skull.
1. Part 1

VERDE - 1

It was in the middle of one of Verde's latest rants about some technological advancement that Verde noticed the nostalgic look on Skull's face. Upon noticing Verde had stopped, Skull shook his head.

"Sorry, it's just… you remind me of someone." Skull said apologetically, not having meant to ignore Verde. He attempted to disregard the near painful longing he felt to be close to his Guardians.

Verde frowned, now curious. How did he remind Skull of someone? "Who?" He asked, curious if it was someone he knew.

"Ah, never mind. Just I friend I had growing up." Skull replied, shrugging it off and attempting to distract Verde back on topic. He'd have to send a letter to Hermione soon, he missed his Lightning. "So, you were saying…?"

* * *

VIPER - 2

"You shouldn't be so wasteful with your money," Viper glowered, irritated as they noticed Skull's frivolous spending on yet another new tank for Oodako.

Skull nearly laughed, reminded strongly in that moment of his Cloud Guardian. "Haha, Oodako knocked out over 20 people at once on the last raid on Mafia Land, so I felt he deserved a reward!"

Viper didn't like that answer. "You're an Arcobaleno, you shouldn't be attacking Mafia Land anyway!" They sighed.

Skull just grinned, an echo of '_You're a Lord now, Potter. You should act like it.'_. "You remind me of my cousin! Always lecturing me on my behaviour." Skull gleefully replied.

As always, Viper was on the lookout for personal information from the other Arcobaleno. Surprisingly enough, they didn't know much about Skull, other than the information he'd shared. Sensing an opportunity to learn more, they leaned forward.

"Your cousin?" They questioned, but even as they asked, they saw Skull beginning to pull away.

"Don't worry about it, I just haven't seen him in a while." It'd been, what, months, maybe even years since he'd last seen Draco? He'd have to make a trip to see him soon. It had been way too long since he'd seen his Cloud Guardian.

His phone pinged. It was Reborn, demanding he go and do something for him. "Reborn-senpai needs the Great Skull-sama's assistance! I have to go!" He got up, running to the door, pausing at the last second. "I'll see you later, Viper!"

Viper sighed; opportunity lost. "Goodbye, Skull." Another time, maybe.

* * *

COLONELLO - 3

He'd been preparing for this all week. The day he'd finally get revenge on Reborn for daring to ruin his plan to ask out Lal.

Holding in his hand what he'd be using to add to Reborn's coffee, he crept towards the kitchen area and held his breath as he carefully held it over Reborn's coffee, which he'd foolishly left alone thinking it would be safe, mwahaha!

"What are you doing?"

Colonello shrieked, though he would deny it until the day he died, turning to face the unexpected voice only to see Skull standing it the doorway, arms crossed and head tilted in curiosity.

"Shh, kora!" He shushed Skull, ignoring the fact that he'd been a lot louder. "I'm just…" He trailed off, panicked as he tried to find an excuse. Time was running out! There was a limited window of time that Reborn left his coffee alone.

"Adding something to Reborn's coffee?" Skull finished, smirking delightedly. Colonello paled. If Skull ratted him out-!

"Go right ahead, then." Eh?!

"Go ahead, kora?" He was dumbfounded.

"Come on, already! I want to see his reaction!" Skull's smirked had twisted into something that looked disturbingly like a pout. "As the son of a prankster, and the friend of two twin owners of a shop dedicated to pranking, I'd be letting them down if I didn't at the least encourage a prank!" At the thought of his Rain Guardians, he laughed. He missed them. They'd all been so busy recently, him with the Arcobaleno Curse, and the twins with their joke shop.

"Who are your friends, kora? We've never met them." Colonello asked even as he hurried to make the final touches to his revenge. The Arcobaleno knew Skull's parents died when he was young, as he'd admitted as much in the past. But he'd never heard of these prankster friends of his.

"Well, it's been a while since I've seen them. We've all been pretty busy recently." Colonello conceded the point. They really had been quite busy these past few months, and if Skull's friends run a joke shop like he said, then they must be pretty busy as well.

"Fair enough. Now hurry, hide, I think Reborn's coming back!"

* * *

FON - 4

Fon sighed and sipped at his tea as he watched Reborn fighting with Skull, who's screeching only increased in volume as Reborn continued. It soon got to the point where he simply gave up, leaving the room with his ears covered.

"I wonder if he'll ever realise if you do that intentionally?" Fon asked the sprawled figure of Skull, who was clutching at his head dramatically even as he instantly became silent as soon as Reborn left hearing range.

Twisting to look at Fon, Skull grinned. "Never! The Great Skull-sama is too good an actor for Reborn-senpai to ever catch on!"

Fon nodded, conceding that he had a point; it'd been years now, but Reborn still showed no signs of recognising Skull's obnoxiousness as exaggerated whenever he was there.

As he watched Fon sip serenely at his tea, Skull wistfully thought of his Mist Guardian. Luna was always so unflappable in the face of whatever weirdness they got up to. He'd been exchanging letters with her for a while now, as he did with all his Guardians, but it'd been somewhat difficult to hide a snowy white owl from flying in and out the building. He was especially careful because of Viper, whom he suspected of being a from the wizarding world. It meant that their letters were only every few months instead of weekly, or even daily, as he'd prefer.

Fon easily spotted Skull's forlorn expression, and frowned, concerned. "Is something wrong, Skull?" He enquired.

Skull shook his head, standing as he went to leave the room. "Don't worry about it, Fon. Enjoy your tea!"

"Skull-," Fon went to reply, still worried, but it was too late. Skull had already left. Oh well, he'd just ask him later.

* * *

REBORN - 5

Reborn approached, curious, as he noticed Skull hunched over the table. As he silently moved closing, he saw that he appeared to be writing something. And was that a quill?

"Lackey," Reborn made to question Skull, but the Cloud's frankly out of proportion reaction made him startle.

Skull screamed, whipping around to face Reborn while simultaneously attempting to cover up and hide the letter he'd been writing to Neville.

"SENPAI! What-what're you doing here?" Skull shrieked in his usual high-pitched tone as he scrambled to hide the quill and inkwell.

Reborn stared at him as if he'd said something stupid. "…This is the kitchen, Lackey." He leaned to the side to get a glimpse of whatever Skull was hiding, only for Skull to pick it up, making as if to leave. Quickly, he snatched at a piece of paper only to scowl, confused as he realised it wasn't, in fact, paper.

"What is that? Parchment? And who's Neville?" He questioned, scowl growing deeper as Skull looked away, clearly about to lie. "And don't you lie to me, Lackey!" Leon transformed from his chameleon form into his usual gun, and he pointed it at Skull, glaring menacingly.

"Ah! It's an inside joke! My friends and I always use parchment to send letters to each other!" His response only made Reborn more confused. Why not use a phone, like normal people? And who were these supposed 'friends' of his; they'd never been introduced. Before he could ask, Skull continued to ramble at a high-pitched pace, making him internally cringe at his poor, poor ears' suffering. "Neville is- uh- my friend! He's a gardener!" Skull inwardly grinned at his brilliant acting. If he'd admitted that Neville was a professor, Reborn would be even more curious, and it wasn't like he could explain that Neville was a professor of Herbology at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, now could he?

"Lackey…!" If Skull was lying, he'd be shot, for sure.

Skull, realising his explanation hadn't sufficed Reborn's expectations, moved onto plan B: Screeching in a tone that had proven in the past to hurt Reborn's hearing in order to distract him.

"Senpai! Why are you so cruel to the Great Skull-sama! Why-,"

Reborn, sensing his fate, pre-emptively winced.


	2. Chapter 2 - The Realisation, Part 1

TSUNA – The Realisation Part 1

Tsuna's monthly meeting with the Arcobaleno in the Mansion was proving to be an intensely headache-inducing one; for some reason, it seemed as if every one of the Arcobaleno had gone into the meeting with the sole intention of arguing with each other.

Tsuna inwardly despaired as he realised the meeting would take another 20 or so minutes just to cover what they originally came for; Reborn would kill him, regardless of his newly won status of Vongola Decimo, if he left early.

"SENPAI! How could you-!" Screamed Skull as he flailed his arms wildly, managing to hit Colonello in the face while he was flirting with Lal Mirch, incidentally pushing him into Verde, which knocked the delicate device in his hand over, and caused the chaos to exacerbate ten-fold.

The Vongola Decimo felt the urge to lower his face into his hands as his Hyper Intuition told him it was no accident. _Why? _Tsuna silently cried, before firming his resolve.

"Come on, Reborn, everyone! That's enough!" His voice came out in a high pitched, panicked tone. Alright, so maybe it wasn't as commanding as he'd hoped. Still, it worked well enough as Reborn spun around to address his insolence.

"What was that, Dame-Tsuna? A boss should be forceful with bickering subordinates," his glare intensified, "Which_ I _certainly. Am. Not!" He emphasised his point with a wave of his Leon-gun in Tsuna's direction. Tsuna _Hiiieee!_'d, but managed to outwardly project an image of calm.

"Of course not, Reborn, but it's been an hour since the meeting started and we've yet to do anything." Reborn didn't look satisfied but lowered his weapon, much to Tsuna's relief, only to turn it on the poor purple-headed Cloud.

"Oi! Lackey!" Reborn called to the panicked-looking Skull who was inching towards the door as he glanced down at his wrist as if to check a watch that wasn't there.

"Hahaha! Sorry, Senpai, but the Great Skull-sama must go!" Skull's laugh came out as somewhat fake, easily enough for Reborn and the others to pick up on.

Reborn's eyes gleamed dangerously. "Whatever for, Lackey?" By now, the other Arcobaleno were curious enough to pause in their shenanigans, all curious to know where exactly Skull was trying to go.

"Ah-, you see, I was going to go meet with some friends of mine!" Here, his voice dropped to an embarrassed mutter, "Twenty minutes ago." Skull turned, ready to leave and meet his Guardians before they came looking for him, or worse, sent a Patronus asking where he was.

"Oh?" Viper tilted their head, curious. "Who are these friends of yours?" Skull looked as if he was about to try and dodge the question, so they pressed on. "What Famiglia are they from?"

Skull looked away, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly as he answered the second question. "Well, the Great Skull's friends…" He trailed off, mumbling under his breath as if that would prevent the highly trained Arcobaleno from hearing, "They're… civilians, I guess you could say."

If anything, this only increased the group's curiosity, even the tired-looking Vongola Decimo. An Arcobaleno, of all people, friends with civilians?

"Well then," Reborn hummed, "Let's go and meet these civilians of yours, Lackey."

Perhaps sensing that Reborn, and the rest of the Arcobaleno who'd all perked up and started heading towards the door, wouldn't be deterred, Skull didn't try and argue. "Fine," He said, his eyes flashing a faint orange before turning completely purple as his voice became surprisingly harsh, "But if any of you try and hurt them…" He left the threat open, much to the Arcobaleno's amusement. The Lackey, the widely acknowledged weakest Arcobaleno, even gathering the courage to threaten them? It really only made these supposed friends of the Cloud all the more intriguing, if the possibility of harm coming to them made Skull come nearly the closest they'd seen to a true Cloud Rage.

All of the Arcobaleno were aware that Skull was an Inverted Cloud rather than a Classic one, which meant his Territory wasn't a place or property, but rather people. Not in the sense that he owned them – even the thought of trying to take away another's freedom was sickening to him – but rather that he'd protect them, care for them, even at the risk of his own life. But they'd never seen him admit this fact for some random civilians they didn't even know of.

They quickly left the room, Reborn dragging the Decimo out with them. They'd decided to schedule the meeting for another time, much to Tsuna's great despair at the idea of having to put up with this again later that week. It took only ten or so minutes to reach a nearby park, with Skull avoiding answering questions to the best of his ability the entire way.

"How long have you known these friends of yours, Skull?"

A nervous laugh. "Ah, a few years!"

"How'd you meet them if they're civilians, kora?"

"I don't spend all my time in the mafia, Colonello!"

The vague answers didn't stop until they'd arrived at the park. By now, the Arcobaleno were slightly impressed that Skull had managed this long, even avoiding Viper's probing questions.

The Cloud turned as they reached the entrance. "Alright," Skull looked deadly serious, the purple Flames in his eyes only reinforcing the impression. "A few ground rules-," He was cut off.

"Relax, Skull," Fon tried to reassure him, "We all know not to speak of Omerta or the mafia…" He trailed off as Skull had looked away.

Deciding to trust them, Skull took a deep breath. "My friends… they know about the mafia, and, well, Flames-,"

"You told them about Flames!" Lal shouted, looking exasperated.

Fon looked worried. "Skull, you could have been taken by the Vindice for that!"

"Lackey…!" Reborn growled, a wordless threat as Leon crept to his hand.

Viper, however, stared narrow-eyed at the Cloud. "You didn't tell them, did you?" their voice cut off the others, who turned, confused by what the Mist was saying. "They have active Flames."

Skull nodded, jaw clenched, looking determined. "They aren't a part of any Famiglia or even the Mafia." He shared, "And if I have it my way, they never will be."

The former chibi Arcobaleno's eyed widened. It was rare to activate one's flames and not be quickly absorbed into a Famiglia– there were entire groups whose whole purpose was finding and recruiting – forcefully if necessary – the new Flame users into established mafia Famiglia. For more than two or three people, as Skull had implied, to go completely unnoticed or undetected? While it wasn't unheard of, it certainly wasn't common.

This did explain why Skull was so protective though. As an unaffiliated Cloud himself, he knew well the lengths many would go to in order to recruit him.

Skull turned to Tsuna, who had gotten more and more nervous the closer to the park they'd gotten. "If I find out that my friends, _any_ of my friends, have been attacked because of me introducing them to you…" His eyes gleamed with Cloud Flames practically scorching the Vongola Tenth where he stood. "Then you and your Guardians won't live long enough to find out who killed you." The Arcobaleno nearly gaped at the audacity of their weakest member uncharacteristically threatening what was one of the most powerful men in the world so blatantly.

Tsuna nodded, looking earnest. "I promise, Skull." His Intuition pinged faintly as he began to realise there was more to this than just a Cloud, no matter how strong, protecting his friends.

Skull turned, pausing only a moment as if to gather his strength before he entered the park, quickly making his way over to one corner, shaded by trees. He could sense through the Guardian bonds he shared that his elements were alert, some of them faintly nervous and all of them anxious to see him. It'd been ages since he'd met up with one of them, let alone all of them together, and it had killed him inside even as he knew it was necessary to keep the mafia off their backs. Hopefully, that would no longer be necessary, what with the curse having been broken and finally establishing a reputation of being a part of the Strongest Seven. Sure, the weakest of them, but still the weakest of the _Strongest Seven in the world_.

The Arcobaleno followed as Skull slowly made his way over to the somewhat strange-looking group. There was a collection of people, a red-haired man conversing with a bushy, brown-haired woman. Next to them, two similarly red-headed twins appeared to be attempting to provoke a blonde man who was firmly ignoring them as he leaned against a tree, scanning the park. He paused as he noticed the Arcobaleno and turning to say something to the others. He looked uncomfortable standing there, even in his finely tailored, expensive-looking clothes. Sitting on the grass beside him, a pale-haired woman with a strange-looking stick stuck behind her ear paused her conversation with a larger brown-haired man, standing up to skip over to the Arcobaleno. "Skull!" She cheered, grabbing him in a tight hug.

"Luna!" Skull picked up the slight woman, spinning her in large circles as he laughed. It felt great just being close to his Guardians again.

Luna refused to let go, so he simply continued walking over to the others with Luna held in his arms, much to the Arcobaleno's amusement. Viper, however, slowed to a stop as soon as Skull shouted the woman's name, breath turning into a choked gasp as they noticed the stick – no, _wand_ – tucked just over her ear. "Luna…?" Their voice, quiet though it was, was easily picked up on by the other Arcobaleno.

"Is something wrong, Viper?" Fon asked, arms tucked into his sleeves in a deceptively innocent movement, surveying his surroundings in an attempt to identify the source of Viper's out of character reaction. He was ignored, as Viper gave Skull's friends a second, sharper glance, noticing things they'd disregarded before – the Lord's ring on one man's finger, the ear missing on one of the twins – coming to one impossible conclusion.

"Skull… what would you say if I asked who You-Know-Who was?" Viper subtly asked if he was aware of his 'civilian' friend's connection to the Wizarding World.

Skull's eyes nearly popped out of his head, disregarding Viper's attempt at being covert. "Ehh? You know about magic, Viper?" At the question, Viper managed to shake off most of their surprise, returning to their usual aloof demeanour.

"Of course, I am the World's Greatest Information Broker."

Poor Tsunayoshi, on the other hand, was surprised – he'd only known about magic for a few weeks, having been told after becoming Decimo about the other secret society with powers.

"Are your friends wizards, Skull?"


End file.
